Today's post is from Anna Le Grange, an IBCLC in Kent who is joining us to speak out against the cuts to breastfeeding support during 'Breastfeeding Celebration Week'. If, like us, you feel there really isn't much to celebrate (other than the amazing families who breastfeed in spite of the lack of Continue Reading
Breastfeeding: What’s to Celebrate in Kent?
This is the first in my series of guest blogs for our alternative Breastfeeding 'Celebration' Week. See my post for the context and an explanation of the week and how we feel about it. In the context of the swathing cuts that infant feeding support has suffered over the last couple of years, we feel Continue Reading
Breastfeeding Celebration Week?
So the Department of Health have, at the eleventh hour decided we WILL be having a Breastfeeding Week this year. Apparently, in the 4th week of June, there will be a series of blogs by Viv Bennett, Chief Nurse and Director of Maternity and Early Years, and...well, that's it. So that appears to be Continue Reading
Breastfeeding: How Society Makes a Difference
This is a guest post from my lovely friend and doula trainee, Rosie Spampinato. I have encouraged her to write this post to illustrate the power that society has on our breastfeeding journeys. We do not nurse in a vacuum, but are prey to all the influences, good and bad, that society can throw at Continue Reading
My Doula Year: banging the drum for justice
It's been quite a year. Not just for me, but for the wider birth world. This year heralded the beginnings of the implementation of the Better Births report. Continuity of Carer is really on the horizon - for those not in the know, that means the prospect of all women being able to get to know a Continue Reading
Myth Busting, Booby Traps and Breastfeeding Success
As a Breastfeeding Counsellor and Doula, I spend a lot of time talking to women (and men) about breastfeeding. I also hang out online rather a lot, reading forums and blogs about my favourite subject. Here are a few of the statements about infant feeding I hear most…and my thoughts in response. Continue Reading
Breastfeeding: The UK’s First Report Card
The general concensus for our end of term report is that opt-quoted phrase, Could do better The teachers are the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative, 'a collaborative national assessment of the implementation of key policies and programmes from the WHO’s Global Strategy for Infant and Young Continue Reading
Babies, Bottles and Feeling Bad..Or…Bog Off Guilt!
GUILT...5 little letters that pack a punch way above the space they take up on the page. 5 little letters that are a heavy cross to bear when you are a parent. For some reason, that burden seems to fall even more heavily on mothers. Every tiny thing we do comes loaded with worry, doubt and Continue Reading
The Evil Nip-Nasties: what to do with cracks and blisters
When I was a little girl I was always grazing my knees climbing trees and falling off my bike. I used to love picking at the scabs, worrying away at the edges to see if it was ready to come off. I loved seeing the brand new pink skin underneath. My mum told me scabs were 'nature's plaster' and to Continue Reading
There’s a crisis going on – right on our doorstep
Not in Africa or Asia, but right here, right now, literally miles from your front door. As I type this, there are families with new babies struggling to feed their families, living in a cold, temporary camp and attempting to make up baby bottles without access to hot water or sterilising Continue Reading